Embodiments of the present invention relate to a cooking appliance, and more particularly, to a cooking appliance having an improved structure in which superheated steam is capable of being used during a cooking operation.
Ovens are apparatuses that perform a cooking operation by sealing and heating a cooking material. In general, ovens can be classified into electric ovens, gas ovens, and microwave ovens according to the type of heat source. Electric ovens use an electric heater as a heat source, gas ovens use heat generated by a gas, and microwave ovens use the frictional heat of water molecules generated by a high frequency as a heat source.
An oven includes a cooking compartment in which food is cooked and an electronic device compartment in which electronic device components are accommodated. The inside of the cooking compartment is sealed in such a way that high-temperature heat is not dissipated outside of the oven while the food is being cooked.
Cooking appliances in which steam is supplied into a cooking compartment while food is cooked, so that a cooking task can be indirectly performed by the steam heat to improve the texture of food and reduce the loss of nutrients from the food, have been recently developed.
When the cooking task is performed using a cooling appliance having a steam generator, a loss of nutrients, such as vitamin C, which is easily destroyed by heating, can be reduced. In addition, when cooking salted food, such as salted fish, steam is added to reduce the salt concentration making the outside of the salt food crispy while the making the inside of the salted food moist. In addition, steam is added while baking bread so that a surface of the bread can be prevented from being hardened. As a result, sufficient oven spring, a phenomenon in which the volume of bread dough is increased when the dough of fermented bread is baked, can be performed and the flavor of bread can be improved.
The above-described cooking effects can be further maximized when superheated steam is used.